3 G 8 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March 23, 1912 
of a piece of stiff wire at an acute angle, passing 
the short end through the eye of the hook and 
tying it to the shank, so that tlie long end will 
project down diagonally from the eye nearly to 
the point of the hook. In this way the fly, 
which is attached by a split ring, can be easily 
changed and the lure varied to suit the ca¬ 
pricious taste of the fish. The fender should 
be painted dark green, which makes it nearly 
invisible in the water and so decreases the ef¬ 
fective length of the lure, otherwise too long 
for a single hook. I have repeatedly taken bass 
out of thick weeds with this rig when otherwise 
it would have been either still-fish or loaf. 
Though the days are now hot and the fish 
sluggish, your temperament or the limit of 
your vacation may make it absolutely necessary 
for your peace of mind that you take a few 
bass; the solution is night fishing. Whether 
bright moonlight, as most of the articles I have 
read on the subject advise, or absolute darkness, 
as the natives at my lake hold, is best, I have noth¬ 
ing to say—I have had good and bad success 
under both conditions; but even if there are 
whales jumping all around you, seemingly 
threatening to leap into your boat, it does not 
follow you will get them, as they may be only 
playing and not feeding. However, during the 
summer, night fishing promises best for suc¬ 
cess, and best results can be got with the lure 
sold in the tackle shops under many different 
names, but commonly called a “white plug.” 
This does the work well, as far as getting 
the fish goes, and, indeed, in some lakes can 
be used as a day as well as a night bait, and is 
probably the best single bait for Eastern waters. 
As sold, however, the head revolves, and after 
an hour’s fishing, the line is hopelessly twisted 
and backlashes in the dark are not conducive to 
one’s present comfort or welfare in the here¬ 
after. I, therefore, rig mine with a stationary 
head, as shown in Fig. 4, and let only the spinner 
revolve, and I find this makes just as much fuss 
in the water, stirs up the curiosity or pugnacity 
of just as many fish and does not twist the line. 
I let my hooks hang free, as I think them more 
likely to snag the fish that way, but they are 
liable to get tangled with each other, and if 
you think it too much trouble to watch out for 
this, just put a small piece of rubber tubing— 
that used for camera bulbs is about right—over 
the eye of the hook, the split ring attaching it 
to the lure and the ring in the lure through 
which the split ring passes and you will have 
your hooks standing out semi-rigidly and 
tangle-proof. Two pieces of shade roller, some 
tempered brass wire, a swivel and a spinner, to¬ 
gether with some white paint, are all you need 
to make this monstrosity, and while no one 
knows what the bass can think it may be, they 
certainly strike at it. 
You, may for some reason, want to fish deep 
and weedless water, and for this I use the lure 
shown in Fig. 5, which is the ordinary wooden 
minnow of commerce with a large double hook 
on the belly attached as described for No. 2. 
You may take a day off at some other lake 
and not want to be bothered with all the above 
truck, in which case use a tandem spoon, as 
shown in Fig. 6.’' I combine my own by getting 
pearl, brass, copper and nickel blades, inserting 
a split ring in the holes there and attaching 
two large swivels to this ring, thus using three 
{Continued on page 387.) 
Fishing 
By LADD 
I ALWAYS eat out of my creel,” said a 
cadaverous, dyspeptic angler, when I 
asked him what kind of a lunching place 
he preferred. Of course, he did; I need not 
have asked him; he looked it. You know his 
kind, that sit forlornly on a sharp rock in the 
hot sun. They always look as if they were 
angling vagrants without friends or homes. 
Pretty lunching places are common enough 
on the banks of most streams. A shady tree 
should be chosen, with a sloping mossy or 
grassy bank, a spring not too far away, and 
driftwood or dead standing timber near, if a 
fire is contemplated. Rocks, even a nice 
smooth ledge, can never be compared with moss 
or grass. This for dry weather; for rain more 
care must be taken. And it is well to know, and 
to remember, that in forests when everything 
is wet a dry seat can be gotten by rolling over 
a movable log. 
All this talk about a proper place is based on 
your having a fair lunch in your creel. There 
is little use in hunting a pretty glade if your 
lunch is of the sort that many boarding-houses 
hand out to the trustful but unfortunate fisher¬ 
man. The sandwich of frequent make is a 
stomachic gymnastic, representing the success¬ 
ful spoiling of good bread and butter. Bread, 
and butter by itself, the housewife not of frugal 
mind as to butter, is good enough for anybody. 
Add a piece of cheese and a few cookies and 
there are times when I would rather have the 
cowbells on the hillside call me to eat than to 
be summoned to a king’s feast. 
The foundation has been stated; good bread 
and butter. With this a superstructure of any 
gastronomic height can be erected. If you are 
ambitious you can have any number of floors 
and can finish off your skyscraper with a roof 
of a wedge of imported cheese and exchange 
your pipe for a cigar and let flags of smoke 
drift down stream. But in that case you will 
probably do little fishing until most of the 
afternoon hours have been consumed with the 
lunch and drifted away with the cigar. 
Uncle Thad Norris had definite ideas about 
angling lunches. In his “American Angler’s 
Book” he teaches how to have such meals at 
the waterside as might make the hungry shade 
of Soyez wish that he could return and go fish¬ 
ing. And the basis is bread and butter. 
If I could invite you to take a bite with me 
on the stream, you would certainly want to 
know how the magic of the meal was wrought. 
I will therefore begin where you must if you 
ever try the pleasing experiment. 
Instruct the good woman at the farmhouse 
to give you a good big chunk of bread. With 
your pocketknife dig out a hole at one end, 
saving a piece for a cover. Have this cavern 
very nearly filled with butter, and push in your 
lid. 
If they have cheese at the house, take some 
of that and a half-dozen cookies or two or three 
slices of cake or gingerbread. Also carry with 
you plenty of salt and pepper and put in your 
creel an abundance of wrapping paper; any 
coarse paper will do, even newspaper, but if 
Lunches 
PLUMLEY 
the latter must be used, get at least one piece 
of the other sort or a paper bag. The best 
quality of paper for stream cookery is the yel¬ 
low-brown straw paper that years ago was used 
by all country stores. 
I will now suppose that you and your angling 
companion have had fair luck during the morn¬ 
ing hours, that it is noon, and that you have 
selected a proper lunching place. And so far 
the labors have been joint; from the selection 
of the lunching spot co-operation will be the 
order of the day. One angler will select as 
many trout as you intend to offer as a sacri¬ 
fice to the god of appetite. These are to be 
taken to a convenient rock at the side of the 
stream, carefully cleaned, prepared, and washed 
for the sacrificial fire, and well sprinkled with 
salt and pepper. Leave the heads on, for this 
dish is to be trout au naturel. 
While the fish are thus being prepared, the 
other angler should be gathering wood and 
building a brisk fire. If he be wise he will 
select his wood with great care, for a smoky 
fire is an abomination and not necessary, even 
in the rain. 
Driftwood is good if it is taken from the 
banks well above the ordinary water line, and 
standing brittle dead timber the best of all. 
Break the wood into two-foot lengths and be 
generous with it. The idea is to get as soon 
as possible a deep bed of live coals. 
When the fish have been attended to, and the 
fire has well burned down, one of the anglers 
should soak the wrapping paper, and when it 
has been held up for a moment to drain, 
arrange the trout in a neat pile at one end of 
one sheet. Place a little butter in the middle of 
the pile. The trout are then wrapped in the 
wet paper. As the package is built up with suc¬ 
cessive layers of paper the ends are carefully 
turned in, and when all is finished, the neat 
bundle will give protection to the trout at all 
sides and, more particularly, at the ends. 
Take the package to the stream, immerse it 
for a second, letting the water drain out, taking 
great care not to tear the paper or break the 
bundle apart. 
While one angler has been at work with the 
package, the fire builder has been making a hole 
in the embers with a green bit of sapling. The 
bundle of fish is then placed in this glowing 
recess and completely covered with ashes and 
embers. 
Remember that all cookery is a good deal 
of a fixed science. There should be plenty of 
embers so as to cover deeply every portion of 
the package. If any part of the work has been 
slighted, the lunch will not be up to what it 
should be. 
If the bed of coals is sufficient, thirty to 
thirty-five minutes will cook the fish, provided 
they are ordinary small stream trout; for trout 
of large size allow forty-five minutes to an hour. 
While the trout are cooking select three flat 
stones, two somewhat small for plates, and a 
larger one for a platter. Do not take them 
from, the bed of the creek, unless you wish a 
reminder of a Fourth of July celebration, due 
